ChaserCon 2008: Day Two Blog

11:00 PM MST
This evening, Josh Wurman and Sean Casey gave the keynote dinner address at ChaserCon. The humorous presentation featured details on their "Storm Chasers" series on the Discovery Channel. Wurman spoke about the planned DOW/CSWR research for 2008 and Casey showed pictures of the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) 2 currently being built in Lawton, OK.

Baron Services gave away a Mobile Threat Net system and then Video Night commenced with video montages from numerous different chasers.

4:00 PM MST
Afternoon sessions are about to wrap up. Earlier today, Tim Marshall gave a recap of his 2007 chases, including Hutchinson, KS. See SevereStudios video from that day.

Tim Marshall
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We watched an interesting presentation by Tim Samaras on high-speed photography of lightning. His cameras shoot over 1 million frames per second!

At lunch, we spent about an hour driving around Aurora looking for microphones and adapters so we could do more interviews with better audio.

After lunch, we enjoyed David Hoadley's presentation on the different covered wagon trails that once traversed through the heart of chase country.

Josh Wurman gave a quick preview of the VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment 2) project which is scheduled to start in 2009. Click here for more info on VORTEX.

Roger Hill took us to Taiwan with his amazing video from the east side of the island during Super Typhoon Krosa.

Currently, Dr. Howard Bluestein is speaking about mobile radars such as his MWR-05XP and the Doppler On Wheels (DOW).

10:45 AM MST
Even though there is a MDT (Moderate Risk) of severe weather in Texas today, there are still 250+ chasers at the 10th Annual National Storm Chasers convention going on in Denver, CO.

Dr. Greg Forbes of the Weather Channel has been scratched from the schedule due to the possible outbreak in Texas. Forbes needs to stay at TWC headquarters in Atlanta.

So far this morning, after an introduction from Tim Samaras and Roger Hill, the coordinators of ChaserCon, we've seen presentations from Jon Davies and Mike Umscheid.

Tim Samaras and Roger Hill welcome
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Jon Davies discussed forecasting on the Greensburg, KS tornado day and stressed following your morning forecast and looking for placement of jet streams. He also spoke about the Spencer, SD tornado in 1998.

Jon Davies Presentation
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Mike Umscheid was the radar operator on duty at the Dodge City National Weather Service on the night of the Greensburg tornado. He was responsible for issuing warnings during the event. Umscheid gave a very passionate speech about the Greensburg cell, saying it was the most impressive he's seen either chasing, or while working at the NWS.

Kenny with Mike Umscheid
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The Greensburg tornado was on the ground for 65 minutes and the damage path was 1.1 miles wide. Tornadic winds were over Greensburg for 4 minutes. There were "giant" tornadoes for two hours after the Greensburg tornado ended.

Umscheid praised the great collaboration between the NWS and media, chasers, spotters, and Emergency Management.